The quadriceps are among the most powerful muscles in the human body. The power of the quadriceps, and to a lesser extent, the glutei maximus, are partly responsible for the success of the bicycle as a human powered vehicle. Most cyclists riding conventional cycles find that while quadriceps can be built up by exercise to high levels of endurance, seat pressure is a limiting factor on durations of rides. Much of the weight of a rider is transferred to the bicycle through the seat. Considerable effort has been devoted to softening seats with padding or designing seat surfaces to provide greater rider comfort.
Bicycle seats with deformable padding, such as gel, are known to be adaptive to rider motion. Also, seat posts with internal elastomeric cylinders provide spring-like shock absorption.
A series of U.S. patents to J. Glockl, including U.S. Pat. Nos., 5,524,967; 5,573,304; 5,570,929; 5,590,930 and 5,551,753 all deal with seats which can tilt in all lateral directions. In many other instances, auxiliary members provide spring action immediately below the seat. The inventions of Glockl relate to furniture which is to be used to avoid degeneration of the back muscles and wasting of intervertebral disks.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,583,758 describes a car seat which is mounted to provide rotation upon turning of the car. The hips of an occupant of the seat move with the seat, compensating for centrifugal forces occasioned by out-of-line movement of the vehicle, such as maneuvering on unbanked curves.
While efforts of the prior art are meritorious for their intended purposes, few completely address the problem of rider discomfort from bicycle pedaling. One object of the invention was to devise a bicycle saddle which more completely reduces rider discomfort after lengthy pedaling.